Ous Striving for Us

Ous Shihan
Ous!

Don't take the bus Shihan
Fuss!

Black and Whites outside Shihan
Don't trust!

Blacks and white inside Shihan
That's us!

Shared moments

Divergent paths funneling together

Deep respect and yet

I can swim toward the sharks without regret

Triggers pulled from a box buried deep below

A box planted by a young child trying to grow

In a racist world full of false division

A box overrides intellect, experience or vision

With no possible chance of going to prison

It kicks on with sympathetic but shows no compassion

A four letter F-word it don't describe passion

No this is the flip side four letters past D

And this box is buried too deep to see

It doesn't even matter if you try to flee



Hands up, Hands up, he even put up his heel,

Hands up, Hands up, hands on the steering wheel,

Don't Shoot, Don't Shoot, he's unarmed and innocent,

Don't Shoot, Don't Shoot, this life is not yet spent.




Officer, Officer, take a breath what you're seeing

It's me, it's me, another human being

Just take yourself to a secure and safe place

Do not terminate don't make it a race

I know society won't think that it's right

But if you approach I have no choice but to fight

Officer, officer, can you hear?

That voice in your head, it's nothing but FEAR.

A Land Between Lands

We call it a Glacier

But on that day in 2015

It was an inferno

Wild winds howling like hungry wolves

Surrounding their prey from all sides

Instead of teeth they had fire

Biting into their victims

With a cloak of flames

No where to go they sizzled

Their bark no match for this regenerative predator

Afterwards, their feet lid bare

In an embarrassing naked display,

Half charcoal, half bone

The spongy ground sprung to life

Like a thousand green hands reaching up from the underworld

Grasping onto the light to pull themselves up

Rapidly clouding the ground with chlorophyll

Most of them had some decency back

By the time we arrived

Naked ankles wrapped in foliage

Used up match sticks jutting 150' into the air

Barely connected to the ground

Like cylindrical rockets awaiting takeoff

Dotted around their shins by conical white flower satellites

We made dazzled windshield wipers of our eyes

Soaking up this place of transition

A birthday cake of death

Cycling through its millionth round

We try to take it in

As if this is our first.

Reminder to Catch My Breath

Every breath I push through without break

My skin grows callous

Layer upon layer forming with hard labor

Closing airflow passageways

A plaque to the arteries of oxygen

Deliberately chosen by ignoring signals

The changing terrain

Driving forward into the sandpit

Despite feeling the loss of traction

Foot pressing more and more desperately on the accelerator

Too stubborn to turn back and regroup

At the last possible moment I breathe out

A gasping explosion of acceptance

This is not a game of inward-facing Chicken

One breath in

One breath out

And I stay in place

As I elongate my breath out I begin to reverse course

It is twice as hard to go back

Next time I will remember to slow down

Heed the signs

And breathe

Safety Within

While staring at screens
We lose the means
To observe the fact that we make our own scenes

I definitely get
That it makes you upset
Taking in this unnatural density yet

It's not just the teens
Or even the 'tweens
Robots of all ages walk like Zombeings

But don't forget
It's a filter you set
Resist it and it's resistance you'll get

So here's the truth
This world is uncouth
Being in it at times is pulling a tooth

Don't drop gaze to screen-in
It won't give you mean-in
That comes from relations so lift up that chin

And look around
Without defensive frown
You find security, even in this old town

Clogging up visual field
Deep security won't yield
Nor blasting music as an auditory shield

the deal is that we all need some quiet

if not the world can feel like a riot

like a neverending arms race don't try it

it can be hard to feel loved and secure

in a dog-eat-dog world I'm sure

 but if you find the courage I tell you it's pure

we were made to love and cooperate

no matter how much the news spreads hate

may you find your true self and a way to feel great.

Slow Time Views

I woke up this morning to the most beautiful view.

To the Northwest, the love of my life sleeping next to me.

To the East, the sun rising through thin slits of clouds.

To the South, beautiful formations of ancient rocks jutting up from the Earth like Castles in the Sky.

They were banded by green and red and orange and brown.

At their tops, ancient forests lie untouched, beyond the reach of but the boldest man.

To open my door to this marvelous scene feels at once a privilege and a right.

I suck up fresh air, hoping to store it in my cells for the return home.

Streamers

Disintegrating pink ribbons streak the air.

Twisting cliffs are draped in a translucent purple.

A hazy indigo is spraying on the horizon.

Puffs of peach foreshadow the last hurrah.

A dark purple cotton candy blimp meanders through the sky.

I let myself be wrapped in the white icy breath of the wind.

This marvelous transformation has flooded my senses.

There is no space for feeling when your eyes are stuffed with inspiration.

The last of the day's tail fades out as I pull my bag tight.

Feminine Fullness

Blinding tunnel of pummeling light.

It was almost pitch black and now I see fine.

What tremendous grandeur and feminine might.

It strikes me like a star on the big stage.

I feel safe among this wonderous siren.

I relax my eyes and hoist her to the top of the sky.